Along with the rest of the 2013 Louisville Cardinals, Montrezl Harrell spent Tuesday touring the White House and meeting President Obama, a privilege reserved for those few college basketball players who finish the season as NCAA champions. Along with the huge rings and a lifetime of knowing that banner in the rafters would not be there without your hard work, it’s one of the coolest fringe benefits of a winning national title.

Given how wonderfully Harrell has spent his offseason, though, and how much he has improved as a basketball player since that Monday night in Atlanta, it’s tempting to wonder how much he might have been able to accomplish had he spent all day in the gym working on his game.

The Montrezl Harrell who helped the Cardinals cut down the nets at the Georgia Dome is not the one who’ll try to help drive them toward the JerryWorld Final Four next year in Dallas. Anyone who watched Harrell play for the United States in the FIBA U19 World Championships saw a player who has been emboldened. He is eager to play the role assigned to him, but no longer confined to a role based entirely on his physical stature.

Harrell stands 6-8 and weighs 235 pounds with a reach some cell phone companies would die for. During his freshman season with the Cards, his contributions were mostly the product of his size and energy. He made 97 baskets on the season, dunking 44 of them. He did not attempt a 3-point shot, and he barely hit half of his free throws.

That’s not the guy who showed up at the trials in Colorado Springs for the U.S. U19 squad. That’s not the guy that started at power forward for the Americans. That’s not the guy who was the best player on the floor in the championship game against Serbia, who led the Americans to an 82-68 victory with 17 points and four blocked shots.

“Being good is important to him,” ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg told Sporting News. “I think he’s gotten a taste of it. His role is going to change next year. He’s going to have to do it over 35 games; it’s going to be a challenge.

“But he’s a very good teammate, and he does want to please. Some kids want to play and do it for themselves, I think Montrezl wants to be a good teammate—wants to do well. I always thought he was very genuine in terms of those types of things. He really is not spoiled by the process.”

Greenberg recruited Harrell to Virginia Tech before they sort of went their separate ways. Greenberg became the victim of the school’s rash and foolish dismissal while Harrell determined that if Greenberg were not Tech’s coach, he’d rather play somewhere else.

So Greenberg has known Harrell’s game a while. What we’ve seen blossom in Harrell this spring and summer—the ability to hit jumpshots with confidence and under big-game pressure—is not coming entirely out of nowhere.

“I wouldn’t call him a shooter,” Greenberg said, “but he could make that foul-line shot. It took him forever to get it off, and it didn’t look pretty.”

Harrell’s form and delivery are improving, though, and making that shot when it counts will be the difference between being a late first-round pick admired for his motor (think Kenneth Faried) and a lottery-level pick who thrills scouts for a variety of reasons (think Thaddeus Young).

The play from the Serbia game that drew the most attention to Harrell involved his consecutive blocks on guard Stefan Pot, the second of which launched the U.S. into a fastbreak that Harrell finished with a finger-rolled layup.

As spectacular as that sequence was, it was less a surprise—and somehow less ominous for Louisville opponent’s—than the couple of first-half 17-footers that were included in his team-high 17 points. The first of those occurred with the U.S. leading by only a point, 28-27. The second came 128 seconds before the half and pushed the lead to 38-33.

So these were essential baskets and Harrell attempted the shots fully expecting to make them. It’s a product of his extensive work with his Louisville coaches. Rick Pitino remains among the best teachers of the jumpshot to have coached Division I, and Harrell has been an eager student.

“I think they were things I was capable of doing, but I wasn’t as comfortable as I am now,” Harrell told Sporting News. “Coach P has really gotten me more confidence in my shot.

“Getting repetitions up—that’s really the thing he says. He tells me my jumper really looks good. Coming off screens, popping up to elbow. We do a lot of things like that.”

Louisville assistant Kevin Keatts told Sporting News that the most important element of Harrell’s improvement as a shooter is balance: elevating and landing from the same spot.

“Usually I’d be coming off, falling everywhere, falling back,” Harrell said. “But getting so many reps in practice, I’m starting to land in the same spot, feeling better.”

That foul-line jumpshot became an important component of the Louisville offense through this past season, with 7-footer Gorgui Dieng becoming adept at making it. With 6-5 low-post master Chane Behanan a fixture at power forward, Harrell expects to be assuming Dieng’s position in the lineup. That means keeping traffic away from Behanan down low on offense and also being forced to defend taller players at the opposite end.

Dieng said he has to front centers, keep them from getting access to the ball. He has worked against teammate Steven Van Treese since the end of last season. “And I can’t let him get the ball,” Harrell said.

Receiving a championship ring and meeting the president can often smooth off the edge a player needs to invest all the intensity necessary to win a title in the first place. It’s one reason there are so few repeat winners of the Super Bowl or World Series; why Florida and Duke are the only repeat NCAA champions since the UCLA dynasty.

Harrell believes there might be something different about Louisville. They’ve added some key new pieces—guards Chris Jones and Terry Rozier—and Harrell himself will have an entirely different—in fact, a huge—role.

During his freshman season, before his breakout performance in the Big East title game against Syracuse, he had moments when he wondered if such a moment ever would arrive.

“There were days it was hard; ‘Man, I’m not going to play, this is not going to happen.’ But I just kept looking forward, kept working hard every day,” Harrell said. “I just kept fighting.”

The final buzzer of the Michigan game sounded months ago, but that battle hasn’t stopped.